Large off-highway vehicles (“OHVs”), such as mining vehicles used to haul heavy payloads excavated from open pit mines, may employ motorized wheels for propelling or retarding the vehicle in an energy efficient manner. In some such vehicles, this efficiency is obtained by employing a large-horsepower diesel engine in conjunction with an alternator and an electric drive system, which may include a main traction inverter and a pair of wheel drive assemblies housed within the rear tires of the vehicle. A drive shaft of the diesel engine is mechanically coupled to the alternator, for driving the alternator to generate electricity. The electricity generated by the alternator is routed to the main traction inverter, which supplies electrical power having a controlled voltage and frequency to electric drive motors of the two wheel drive assemblies. Each wheel drive assembly houses a planetary gear transmission that converts the rotation of the associated drive motor energy into a high-torque, low-speed rotational energy output which is supplied to the rear wheels.
Power converters suitable for use with OHVs include, for example, isolated bidirectional H-bridge converters that feature two full semiconductor bridges connected through a power transformer. Such converters can transfer power in both directions with voltages at primary and secondary sides varying within a range, and may include power elements that are switched on and off by drive circuitry in an alternating fashion to produce an output AC waveform. The power elements may include insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), power BJT transistors, power MOSFETs, integrated gate commutated thyristors (IGCT), gate turn-off thyristors (GTO), or the like.
As will be readily appreciated, therefore, OHVs and other vehicles may contain power and control electronics which are utilized to control and manage the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy and to control the supply of electrical power to the traction motors of the vehicle. These power and control electronics also require packaging systems to mount and protect the components thereof, and cooling systems to maximize lifespan and to ensure proper operation thereof.
Existing systems and methods for packaging and cooling power and control electronics typically rely on packaging the power and control electronics within plastic housing assemblies and cooling the components utilizing an external heatsink that is installed separately. Such existing systems and methods for packaging and cooling power and control electronics, however, may be costly, tedious to assemble, and prone to tolerance stack-up issues.